Bring on the Sunshine!

Summer = Fresh.
Fresh salsa is SO good. I just heard you groan with displeasure at the work before you. I've got your back on this one!

Open a 16oz jar of your favorite salsa. I used "medium".
Chop a medium green pepper, medium red bell pepper, half a red onion, 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic, 3-ish medium ripe tomatoes, and 1/4 cup fresh cilantro. Also add 1 small can chopped green chiles, 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans, and about 2 cups of fresh or frozen (and thawed) sweet corn. Mix in a spoonful of sugar, spoonful of salt and spoonful of cumin. Squeeze in the juice of one lime and let it all hang out for awhile.

Yummy! If you like some spice I think you can use a "hot" salsa as the base. The medium actually washed right out with all the additions. You could also use a fresh jalapeno pepper. I liked it without too much spice though. It stayed super fresh and light and hit everybody's taste buds in all the right ways!

Grown Up Pizza

Finally a pizza crust recipe I love, that turns out every single time...

Ingredients
1 teaspoon sugar
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 1/4 cups warm water (100° to 110°)
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Add 2 3/4 cups flour, oil, and salt to yeast mixture; stir until blended. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of the remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).

Place the dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. Punch dough down; cover and let rest for 5 minutes. Divide dough in half. Flatten onto pan (I love using stonewear, and you can roll it right on the stone) Top and bake at 450 until its done (probably about 15 minutes)

*Substituting white whole wheat flour cup for cup works good and adds an extra nutritional kick to the dough without the kiddos even realizing it!

Below, one of my proudest moments. The pizza in the front used a basil pesto for the sauce, then was topped with artichokes, kalmatta olives, thinly sliced tomatoes, spinach, and feta cheese. The crust was rolled super thin and baked until it was very crispy, and quite possibly was one of the best things I've ever made! Other pizza shown is red pepper and fresh mushrooms, also very tasty.

Dessert. It's the new dinner.

This morning we made Tropical Yogurt Ice. We've been waiting all week for the mangoes to ripen, and today they were calling us.

Cut up 2 bananas and 2 mangoes and place in blender. Add 2 cups of plain yogurt, 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar, and juice from half a lemon. Blend up good and place in a shallow container that has a tight fitting lid. Place in freezer. After three hours stir it up to break up the ice crystals, and return to freezer. After another three hours stir again and return to freezer until ready to eat. You will need to let it sit out for a bit to scoop it easy and enjoy!

Before we left this morning, I asked my sous chef to pick out something to make for dinner. He picked a chocolate cake recipe. I asked him to add the sprinkles, and silly me, didn't pay much attention. We got sprinkles alright!

Little Chocolate Cake

2 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sour milk (place 1 tsp white vinegar in your measuring cup and fill with milk)

Stir the chocolate (chop it into smaller pieces first) and hot water until blended. Cool mixture. Add in sugar shortening egg and vanilla - mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to the chocolate - alternating with the milk. Pour into a greased 8" square baking pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool and top with frosting:

In a saucepan, mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/3 cup milk, 2 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate (melted) 2 tablespoons shortening, 1 tablespoon light corn syrup, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Over medium heat, and stirring constantly, bring mixture to a boil and boil for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat and place the pan into a larger pan or bowl of ice water. Mix for 1 minute. Add 2 tablespoons butter or margarine and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Continue mixing for up to 10 minutes.

The frosting will become very gooey - almost caramel like. I don't normally go to such lengths for frosting but this one is worth it!

Put the cake together with the Tropical Yogurt Ice and you have a match made in heaven!

(We did actually consume a real dinner, which even involved salad, so it completely justifies consuming a plateful of goods!)

The chef says, "It's fifty-thousand and nine thousand thumbs up!"

Peach Popsicles

The snow melts and we hit 50 so that warranted popsicle weather somehow. We made our own, and I can't see us ever buying them again!

Place 3 peaches in a medium size bowl and cover with boiling water. After about 30 seconds remove them and dip them into cold water. At this point the skins should slide right off. Peel and remove the pits and chop into pieces.

Place the peaches along with 1 1/4 cups orange juice and 2 tablespoons powdered sugar into the blender and blend until smooth.

Into popsicle molds or disposable cups, place a spoonful of fruit cocktail. Pour the popsicle mix over until about half full and then add another spoonful of fruit. Finish filling the cups. Add popsicle sticks and freeze overnight!

A quote from the chef himself - "They are very good and we made them on Tuesday. This is 5 stars!"

Cost was about $2.00 for 4 regular size popsicles and 3 plastic cup oversized popsicles. Not bad. When peaches are in season this will be very cheap to make! The chef seems to like them better than store bought too!

The Bread You Can't Screw Up

We made bread on Friday night. It's an overnight dough recipe, and has yet to fail me or anybody I've known that has tried it. There are two things my mom actually does consistently well, and that is make gravy and make bread. I suck at both. This recipe cured my bread problem...but don't ask me to make a white gravy!

Ideally you would start this at about 3pm. I started at more like 6, and was up until about 12:30am.

Boil 4 cups water and 1 1/2 cups sugar for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add 1 cup vegetable oil and let all cool until lukewarm...like baby bathwater warm.

In a LARGE bread bowl beat 4 eggs. In a seperate small bowl, stir together 1 package yeast, 1/4 cup water and 1 Tablespoon salt. Mix into the eggs and also add the sugar water mixutre. Next measure in about 10 cups of flour to start and mix it all up. Total flour will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-14 cups, but add slowly and knead in after each addition!

Once the dough is mixed to a point that its not too sticky, and nice and pliable, leave it alone and stop adding flour! Cover with a towel and let rest for 2-3 hours until double (This would be about 6 pm if you started at 3). Punch the dough down, cover, and let rise again. At about 9pm you are ready to put the dough into pans in whatever form your heart desires.

You should make at least one pan of caramel rolls. I must give mad props to my home-ec teacher Gloria for teaching us how to make this caramel. It's so simple, and doesn't get hard and chewy! You cook together 1 stick of butter or margarine, 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream, and 1 cup of brown sugar until it boils for a couple minutes and is all mixed well. 1 recipe will be good for a 9 x 13 pan or a couple of pie pans. Sprinkle with pecans if you like. Make like cinnamon rolls - roll out a softball size piece of dough into a rectangle - spread with soft butter or margarine, and sprinkle with sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and slice into 1 inch pieces and put into the caramel. Cover all the pans with a towel and go to bed!

Before bedtime, and waking up in the morning. It's magic! Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until nicely browned. Don't underbake caramel rolls. You want them to be nice and golden or you'll find the bottoms (technically the tops) not cooked. When you take them out turn out onto a platter or baking sheet and scrape any extra caramel onto the tops. Per my great-grandmother, and grandmother, and mothers direction, you also should run a paper towel with shortening on it over the tops of the dinner rolls and bread. I don't know what the purpose is other than to make them nice and shiny!

Going back to the title, upon typing all of this out I realized I actually didn't add the vegetable oil. I know this because I looked at my vegetable oil supply before making this bread, and eye-balled it at about a cup. That "about a cup" is still in the cabinet! It was still very good bread - perhaps baked a little drier though. Oops!

K.I.S.S. Chicken

Keep it Simple Stupid!

I've developed an obsession with stuffing chicken breasts lately. I never did it before because it always seemed so complicated, but its actually not!

My latest Cooking Light had a recipe using a garlic and herb spreadable cheese by the name Boursin. I actually found Boursin at Kroger, and a small container was $7.99! I took the kind next to it (totally forgetting the name right now) which still cost at least $5 and it may have been more. I wasn't sure what this spread would be like, so I didn't go with my instinct to substitute a cream cheese spread, but will next time. I actually think a flavored cream cheese spread will add more to the dish. At any rate, it was good!

Toast 1/4 cup slivered almonds in a skillet until they start to brown. Cool slightly and chop coarsely. Mix 1/3 cup of the garlic and herb cheese spread, all but a spoonful of the almonds, and a handful of fresh parsely chopped up finely. Stuff into 4 chicken breasts which you have slit open. Heat butter (I used canola oil) in a large non-stick skillet and cook about 6 minutes on each side until nicely browned and cooked through. Let chicken rest for a few minutes and garnish with the reserved spoonful of almonds and some more parsely.

Next time, in addition to using a cream cheese spead, I would like to use a different herb. Maybe chives or rosemary.

Pork: The Other White Meat

Finally back to cooking! Friday night involved me caving in on a Subway promise that's been lingering for about two weeks. Last night was grocery shopping, and the subsequent frozen pizza when you get home. But the weekend involved this:



Paprika Pork

Saute 3 cups of chopped bell peppers of various colors in a pan coated with cooking spray for about 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Coat pan again with cooking spray and add in approximately 1 pound of pork loin chopped in 1 inch pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and brown pork on all sides - about 4 minutes. Stir in 4 teaspoons of paprika and cook 1 minute longer. Add 1 1/2 cups of a red wine pasta sauce, 1 cup of water, and the peppersinto the pan. Bring to a boil - reduce heat and simmer for about 25 minutes. Sprinkle again with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over egg noodles.

Very tasty and just a little spicey with the paprika. Very easy as well. I think frozen bell peppers pre-chopped would work just as well too and save some time (and possibly money), and chicken would also be good in this dish.

Thanks to http://www.cookinglight.com/ for the recipe idea.